Australian company Revelare Hydrospatial has boosted its subsea capabilities with the acquisition of a new remotely operated vehicle.

The APAMA remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is manufactured by another Australia company, Southern Ocean Subsea (SoSub).

The lightweight, one-metre long APAMA can inspect 3,000 squares meters of seafloor per hour using thrusters that give it eight degrees of vectored propulsion.

Revelare has been putting the craft through its paces as part of the company’s hydrographic work in the Timor Sea.

Specifically, it is being used in support of bathymetric data acquisition for nautical charting, for which a network of tide gauges has been secured to the seabed. The ROV is used to download the data collected by the gauges without having to physically recover or disturb them.

“By giving our offshore teams the ability to investigate seabed features of interest, retrieve data and respond to challenges in real time, APAMA improves both efficiency and decision-making during operations,” said Jennifer Brindle, General Manager of Revelare Hydrospatial.

“For our clients, that means faster access to information, greater confidence in offshore operations and access to capabilities that were simply not available previously.”

Updating seabed data from the 1980s

The Timor Sea work (program SI 1070) is the second phase of a large, multi-year campaign to improve the hydrospatial intelligence needed to support safe navigation and informed decision-making across Australia’s crucial northern maritime domain.

The work is being delivered on behalf of the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) via the HydroScheme Industry Partnership Program, and forms part of a much wider hydrographic survey project covering more than 5,500 square nautical miles across Australia’s coast between 2025 and 2028.

The Timor Sea project is being carried out in partnership with One Ocean Group aboard the survey vessel 7-Oceans.

The first phase of the campaign, SI 1057, mapped 2,224 square nautical miles. The current SI 1070 campaign — expected to be completed in October — will add another 1,830, with the final stage, SI 1071, to commence next year.

For some of the areas being surveyed, the most recent data acquired dates back to the 1980s. The new work will vastly update that using modern, multibeam bathymetry.

“At Revelare we are excited to be continuing with our work in the Timor Sea. This is a significant project for the AHO and is of great importance to us as a company,” said Dylan Colson, Hydroscheme Program Manager.

“It has allowed us to invest in innovation in all aspects of what we do, and after a seamless mobilisation we look forward to completing the offshore acquisition in a safe and efficient manner.”